December 25, 2004: Director Martin Scorsese and production designer Dante Ferretti worked hard to lend authenticity to "The Aviator"'s take on Old Hollywood--particularly in the scenes depicting the 1930 premiere of "Hell's Angels." Too bad screenwriter Josh Logan didn't quite get it right, as evidenced by the premiere scene's offhand reference to "Roscoe Arbuckle."

Here's the scene, as best as I can remember: An announcer is introducing stars and other industry notables as they thread through a wild throng on their way into Grauman's Chinese Theater. I guess as a joke, he says something like, "And now, here's Roscoe Arbuckle!" The man he's introducing is not supposed to be Roscoe Arbuckle, and he does not look amused.

I'm not sure Logan's tone is right in this scene. By 1930, Arbuckle was no Hollywood pariah. The industry had let him back in, forcing him to use a pseudonym, yes, but giving him work just the same. He was considered reliable and capable, and it would only be two years before Warner Brothers would offer him an on-screen comeback in a series of comedy shorts.

He was also well liked. Still invited to A-list parties, he had only two years before opened a highly popular nightclub in Culver City called The Plantation Club (a fave Hughes haunt, by the by), which he was forced to close in 1930 due to the stock-market crash and ensuing depression.

That in 1930 he would be the subject of even veiled derision in his native Los Angeles doesn't make sense.